Law Review Symposium 2016 Speaker Information
Marty Stroud
Marty Stroud was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. He graduated from St. Louis University in 1973 and graduated with honors from Louisiana State University School of Law in 1976. After law school, he served as a law clerk for the Hon. Tom Stagg in the Western District of Louisiana. He then worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Louisiana for six years, the last two of which he was chief of the criminal section. Subsequently, he became the First Assistant District Attorney in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and served in that office for six years. Stroud has been in private practice since 1989 and had general trial practice in the federal, state and local courts of Louisiana.
In 1984, Stroud led the capital prosecution of Glenn Ford, who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Ford subsequently spent nearly 30 years on death row at Angola State Penitentiary. On March 11, 2014, Ford was exonerated and walked off death row. He died from lung cancer on June 29, 2015.
Stroud has admitted his errors in the Ford prosecution and apologized to him publicly.
In a 2015 op-ed Stroud wrote, “Had I been more inquisitive, perhaps the evidence would have come to light years ago. But I wasn't, and my inaction contributed to the miscarriage of justice in this matter. Based on what we had, I was confident that the right man was being prosecuted and I was not going to commit resources to investigate what I considered to be bogus claims that we had the wrong man.
“My mindset was wrong and blinded me to my purpose of seeking justice, rather than obtaining a conviction of a person who I believed to be guilty. I did not hide evidence, I simply did not seriously consider that sufficient information may have been out there that could have led to a different conclusion. And that omission is on me.”
Stroud has entered the national debate about the continued use of the death penalty and has become what some call “an outspoken advocate against injustices within the legal system.” He has said a win-at-all-costs attitude is a problem still alive and well in the judicial system. Stroud describes how this attitude of winning adversely affected his decision making process and blinded him to the injustices of ineffective counsel with no trial experience, exclusion of African Americans from juries, and the failure adequately to discharge his obligation under Brady v. Maryland.
In an the same op-ed, Stroud wrote, “In 1984, I was 33 years old. I was arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself. I was not as interested in justice as I was in winning. To borrow a phrase from Al Pacino in the movie And Justice for All, ‘Winning became everything.’”
Stroud has committed his time to the abolishment of the death penalty and putting a stop to the killing human beings in the name of justice. His work focuses on eliminating a stain on the criminal justice system and an anathema to the moral compass.
He was honored with the 2016 Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project Champion of Justice Award, and he has spoken to a variety of groups and media outlets about his experiences. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, 20/20 and CNBC and has been a guest on NPR and National Public Radio in Canada. Stroud is a member of the Bars of the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the Western, Middle and Eastern District Courts of Louisiana.
Andrea Armstrong
Andrea Armstrong is an associate professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law where she teaches constitutional law, criminal law, race and the law and constitutional criminal procedure. Her research focuses on the constitutional dimensions of prisons and jails, specifically prison labor practices, the intersection of race and conditions of incarceration and public oversight of detention facilities. She also serves on the board of the Capital Appeals Project and is a founding board member of the Promise of Justice Initiative, a new non-profit dedicated to abolishing the death penalty and advocating for prisoners' rights. Armstrong earned a Bachelor of Arts from New York University, a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University ‘s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.
Deborah W. Denno
Deborah W. Denno is the Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law and founding director of the Neuroscience and Law Center at Fordham University School of Law. Six of her articles have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, primarily in conjunction with her scholarship on execution methods: in Baze v. Rees by Chief Justice Roberts (majority) and by Justices Alito, Stevens and Breyer (concurring), and in Glossip v. Gross by Justice Sotomayor (dissenting). In her latest article, Denno advocates for the use of the firing squad as an alternative method of execution in light of the Glossip Court’s mandate concerning execution method substitutes for lethal injection. Denno holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Virginia and a Master of Arts in criminology from the University of Toronto. She earned a Doctorate and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania.
Robert Dunham
Robert Dunham is an attorney and a nationally recognized expert on the death penalty. Dunham is the executive director for the Death Penalty Information Center. Previously, he was one of the leading capital appellate lawyers in Pennsylvania, arguing on behalf of death-row inmates in state and federal courts and in the U.S. Supreme Court. Dunham has taught in death penalty training programs offered by national, state and local courts, bar associations and professional organizations for more than 20 years. He was an adjunct professor of law at Villanova Law School for 11 years. He has also taught at Temple Law School and as a visiting scholar at Oklahoma State University. Dunham is a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has served on the Steering Committee of the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Representation Project. He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law.
Jelani Jefferson Exum
Jelani Jefferson Exum is a professor of law at the University of Toledo College of Law. She teaches criminal law, sentencing, criminal procedure and race and American law. She has also taught comparative criminal procedure. Exum writes mainly in the area of federal sentencing, but her research interests also include comparative criminal law and procedure as well as the impact of race on criminal justice. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Federal Sentencing Reporter. Prior to joining the University of Toledo, she was an associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Law and a visiting associate professor at the University of Michigan Law School. Before joining academia, Exum served as a law clerk to Judge James L. Dennis, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and a law clerk to Judge Eldon E. Fallon, of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and American literature and language from Harvard College and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
Jennifer Givens
Jennifer Givens is the legal director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law. Prior to joining the clinic in 2015, Givens worked as an assistant federal defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and as a senior staff attorney with the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, where she represented death-sentenced inmates in state and federal post-conviction proceedings. Her career successes include securing a grant of clemency for a severely mentally ill client and winning a life sentence for an intellectually disabled client, both of whom were sentenced to death in Virginia. She has argued before state trial courts and U.S. district courts in Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as the Virginia Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Givens holds a Bachelor of Arts from Furman University and a Juris Doctor from the DePaul University College of Law.
Janet “Jancy” Hoeffel
Janet “Jancy” Hoeffel is the Catherine D. Pierson Professor of Law at Tulane Law School and specializes in criminal law and procedure, death penalty law and evidence. Her prior work experience includes six years as a public defender for the District of Columbia, where she practiced both trial and appellate advocacy, and as a litigator with a firm in Denver, Colorado. Hoeffel’s scholarly work has focused on the constitutional regulations of discretionary actors in the criminal justice system. In addition to recent publications relating to pretrial disclosure of exculpatory evidence for criminal defendants, Hoeffel co-authors two casebooks and a hornbook on criminal investigative and adjudicative procedure. She eared a Bachelor of Arts in history from Princeton University and a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School.
Michael Mannheimer
Michael Mannheimer is a professor of law and the associate dean for faculty development at Northern Kentucky University Chase School of Law. He is a prolific and eclectic scholar who has published articles on the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. His current research focuses on the under-appreciated federalism component of the Bill of Rights. Before joining the Chase faculty in 2004, Mannheimer worked at the Center for Appellate Litigation in New York City, where he represented indigent criminal defendants on appeal from their convictions and in related collateral proceedings. He has briefed and/or argued more than 40 appeals in the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, the New York Court of Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He has represented clients at every level of the state and federal judiciaries. Mannheimer received a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School.
Matthew Mendel
Matthew Mendel is a clinical and forensic psychologist with a private practice in Raleigh, North Carolina, and has been retained in more than 130 forensic cases in 13 states and in federal jurisdiction. Mendel is a pioneer in “life-history” based forensic evaluations, as opposed to more traditional evaluations in the forensic field, which rely heavily upon psychological testing. Most of his forensic work is in death penalty cases in which it is known or suspected that the defendant was sexually abused or otherwise traumatized during his childhood. Mendel evaluates these defendants, with a focus on their childhood traumas, and then tells their story, helping those involved in the disposition of the case understand the individual accused of the crime. He is the author of The Male Survivor: Impact of Sexual Abuse (Sage Publications, 1995). Mendel holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Princeton University. He earned a Master of Arts and a Doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan.
Susan D. Rozelle
Susan D. Rozelle is a professor of law and the associate dean for academic affairs at Stetson University College of Law. Rozelle teaches in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence. Her research focuses on criminal responsibility and death qualification. She has been cited by Justice Breyer in Glossip v. Gross (dissenting), the New York Governor's Council on Capital Punishment and the Law Commission for England and Wales in its Report to Parliament recommending reform to the law of murder and manslaughter. She is featured legal commentator and has appeared on evening news telecasts on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX as well as on NPR and FOX News Radio. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Central Florida and a Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law.
Nathan Smith
Nathan Smith serves as prosecuting attorney for 19th Judicial District West in Arkansas. He has experience in the prosecution of death penalty cases. Smith served as deputy prosecuting attorney from 2007 until taking office as prosecutor in 2015 following his 2014 election. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Ouachita Baptist University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas School of Law.
Jordan Steiker
Jordan Steiker is the Judge Robert M. Parker Chair in Law and director of the Capital Punishment Center at the University of Texas School of Law. He served as a law clerk for Honorable Louis Pollak, U.S. District Court (Eastern District of Pennsylvania) and Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. He teaches constitutional law, criminal law and death penalty law, his research focuses primarily on the administration of capital punishment in the U.S. and he has written extensively on constitutional law, federal habeas corpus and the death penalty. Steiker has testified before state legislative committees addressing death penalty issues in Texas and co-authored the report that led the American Law Institute to withdraw the death penalty provision from the Model Penal Code. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard School of Law.
Julie Vandiver
Julie Vandiver is an assistant federal public defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Eastern District of Arkansas. She represents Arkansas death-sentenced prisoners in habeas corpus challenges in federal courts and in ancillary proceedings in state court. A native of Washington State, Vandiver moved to Arkansas in 2008 to work at the Federal Defender’s Office. She serves on the board of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty as the liaison to death row and has served on the Steering Committee for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System Research Project since 2011. Vandiver earned and a Juris Doctor from the University of California Hastings College of Law.